The Hijjr Valley (Al-Hijjr)
In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful
۞ Alif, Lam, Ra. These are the verses of the Book and a clear Qur'an. 1 The unbelievers would haply like to wish that they had submitted (and become Muslim). 2 Let them eat and enjoy themselves and be diverted by [false] hope, for they are going to know. 3 Never a city have We destroyed, but it had a known decree, 4 No nation can outstrip its term, nor do they put it back. 5 And they say, "O you upon whom the message has been sent down, indeed you are mad. 6 Why bringest thou not angels unto us if thou art of the truthtellers! 7 We do not send down the angels except with truth; and the disbelievers would not then be reprieved. 8 Indeed We have sent down the Qur’an, and indeed We Ourselves surely are its Guardians. (This is one of the miracles of the Qur’an – no one has been able to change even one letter of its text, despite every effort. It has remained in its original form since the 6th Century (A. D) and will remain so forever. Other Holy Books such as the Torah and the Bible have lost their originality.) 9 And We had certainly sent [messengers] before you, [O Muhammad], among the sects of the former peoples. 10 And whenever a Messenger came to them, they never failed to mock him. 11 So We make it enter the hearts of the sinners. 12 who do not believe in it, although the way which those [evildoers] of olden times had to go has long been within their ken. 13 And even if We opened to them a gate from the heaven and they were to continue ascending thereto, 14 they would have said, "Our eyes are bewildered and we have been affected by magic." 15